I am more confident about the Stones chances against the Heat than I was with Cleveland. They have done it before. The Cavs were the great unknown quantity. Lebron is a bomb very near going off and becoming the superstar he is believed to be.

May 21st, 2006, 8:44 pm

buell17

Afghan Allstar

Joined: January 9th, 2006, 1:16 pmPosts: 564Location: San Diego, CA

What a great win. That was true, old school Detroit basketball. I know we're ready for the Heat.

_________________So many nights I just dream of the ocean, God I wish I was sailing again.

May 21st, 2006, 10:04 pm

TADOne

Play by Play Announcer - Al Michaels

Joined: April 27th, 2005, 3:26 pmPosts: 1776

I'm glad to finally get rid of those pesky Cavs. I give Cleveland a lot of credit for playing us tough and waking us up. This was definitely a wakeup call that we needed to regain focus.

As for the Heat, I am a little worried because they started to play much better against the Nets and are getting production from Antoine Walker. That worries me because the Heat with a 3rd scoring option playing with confidence could hurt us. But they are not as athletic as Cleveland and we can run on them much like Chicago did in the 1st round.

Another thing that concerns me is Sheed's ankle. Arnie Kander, the Pistons trainer, said that Sheed's ankle injury was one of the worst he has seen. He definitely should be missing games but he is gutting it out. You have to believe it is hurting his effectiveness. It is defnitely hurting his defense. Hopefully, they can keep treating it and he doesn't have any setbacks.

_________________Regards,

Tim

May 22nd, 2006, 12:45 pm

theAlphaMale

Site Admin

Joined: August 6th, 2004, 1:25 amPosts: 4920Location: Hills of Auburn

IMO...Sheed has played better since his injury...

_________________Regards, Alpha|Lionbacker.com \(^o^)/"I date this girl for two years and then the nagging starts: I wanna know your name..." - Mike Binder

May 22nd, 2006, 1:04 pm

TADOne

Play by Play Announcer - Al Michaels

Joined: April 27th, 2005, 3:26 pmPosts: 1776

Quote:

IMO...Sheed has played better since his injury...

No way Alpha. His game 6 of 24 points and 4 of 8 from 3 pt. was his only good game. He has played poorly in the other games since his injury in game 4. He has no lift on his shot and has not played the pick and pop game with Chauncey with any consistency. But that's small things.

The real downside to his ankle injury has been his defense. He's been slow to react on his defensive assignments and doesn't have any lift to alter or block shots in the post. Even though the team had it's best defensive effort in game 7, it was because of everyone else doubling LeBron and forcing the Cavs to make jumpers. Rasheed has been a liability defensively since his injury.

_________________Regards,

Tim

May 22nd, 2006, 2:36 pm

buell17

Afghan Allstar

Joined: January 9th, 2006, 1:16 pmPosts: 564Location: San Diego, CA

TADOne wrote:

As for the Heat, I am a little worried because they started to play much better against the Nets and are getting production from Antoine Walker.

I'm not worried about the Heat. The Nets are garbage. They didn't even play that good in the regular season. They had an easy match-up in Indiana.

_________________So many nights I just dream of the ocean, God I wish I was sailing again.

May 22nd, 2006, 2:47 pm

Yorick

ST Coordinator – John Bonamego

Joined: March 22nd, 2005, 8:42 pmPosts: 3811

The Cavs put the hurt on Sheed and our confidence. Last year we beat the Heat in seven games. They surprised me by screwing with their roster, but maybe they are stronger now than before?

I was quite surprised by the Cavs. I guess they were a lot better than what I thought. Certainly the way they boarded and played defense was impressive. Were they really that good, or is it that the Pistons are not really built for the playoffs? I guess we will see, but I think playing a tough series is much better than resting.

The Cavs put the hurt on Sheed and our confidence. Last year we beat the Heat in seven games. They surprised me by screwing with their roster, but maybe they are stronger now than before?

I was quite surprised by the Cavs. I guess they were a lot better than what I thought. Certainly the way they boarded and played defense was impressive. Were they really that good, or is it that the Pistons are not really built for the playoffs? I guess we will see, but I think playing a tough series is much better than resting.

The Cavs are that good and are only going to get better. I smell a huge rivalry brewing. I agree, a tough gut wrenching series is much better than waiting arround.

May 22nd, 2006, 7:47 pm

buell17

Afghan Allstar

Joined: January 9th, 2006, 1:16 pmPosts: 564Location: San Diego, CA

Miami doesn't have the athletes to run with us. Cleveland did. They are a much more athletic team than the Heat. I'm going to say Detroit in 6.

_________________So many nights I just dream of the ocean, God I wish I was sailing again.

May 23rd, 2006, 12:42 am

wjb21ndtown

buell17 wrote:

Miami doesn't have the athletes to run with us. Cleveland did. They are a much more athletic team than the Heat. I'm going to say Detroit in 6.

I agree... I do think the Heat are less of a match up problem than the Cavs. Wade is a great player, but we have 2-3 guys that can D him up one on one... The same can't be said about Lebron... We don't have ANYONE that can D him up one on one.. especially with the BS calls he gets...

That said... The Heat are going to be MUCH more physical and probably place Zo and Shaq in there at the same time... We really need a healthy Sheed to come out on top in this game... or a re-newed performance out of Dale Davis... I just hope Sheed's ankel is ready to go...

That said... Now that Dallas has advanced we haven't gotten past the athletic teams that can run... I probably would have rather played the Spurs as far as a team goes... but there's always that bug in the back of your mind.. "they beat us before".. That can work two fold.. 1) we owe them sons a bitches!!!! or 2) they have the ability to beat us again... I'm glad to see the Spurs gone... IMO the Pistons have problems with players like Horry and Finly... Players that can hit the big shot when it matters no matter who's on them... I really don't see that out of the Heat, and Nowitzki is my biggest fear on the Mavs... I think we'll be able to contain him...

May 23rd, 2006, 12:51 am

blueblood1

Div 1 - Starter

Joined: March 3rd, 2005, 2:19 pmPosts: 577

Cleveland didn't run with us at all. LeBron was the catalyst to a few breakaways that led to dunks, but there was very little running in the DET-CLE series to speak of....rather, CLE was effective because they slowed the game down and took away the easy transition baskets we had grown accustomed to.

MIA has some nice transition players....Jayson Williams and Gary Payton are quick and force a lot of steals in the open court, which lead to break aways and Wade dunks. Haslem is extremely quick and fast. Posey is fast. 'Toine loves to pull up and drain threes on the second wave of breaks....and then the Daddy is good at grabbing defensive rebounds and kicking the ball out quickly to start the break.....what more do you want?

If you all were getting tired of the preferential treatment LeBron seemed to get from the zebras last series, then just cover your eyes the next week or so, because D-Wade will be living at the line....and he can bitc# with the best of 'em when his shot it challenged and he doesn't get bailed out with a call to the stripe....

**I meant to include this prediction in this post at first, and I feel better about it now: DET in 7.

_________________"With the second pick in the 2007 NFL draft, the Detroit Lions select Calvin Johnson, WR from Georgia Tech."

My favorite day ever as a Lions fan.

Somehow landing the Ndamo-nator would be the second best day ever.

Last edited by blueblood1 on May 24th, 2006, 12:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

May 23rd, 2006, 12:52 am

conversion02

RIP Killer

Joined: January 26th, 2005, 9:34 pmPosts: 10493Location: Sycamore, IL

Shaq will be at the stripe as much as Wade IMO. Shaq gets a ton of BS calls and no-calls as well.

I knew if there was one game that the Heat was gonna steal from us that tonight would of been it and I was right.

I am not worried we'll still win this series.

_________________

NEVER GIVE UP!

May 24th, 2006, 10:21 am

theAlphaMale

Site Admin

Joined: August 6th, 2004, 1:25 amPosts: 4920Location: Hills of Auburn

Well the Pistons came out flat...they had nothing and shot for crap. They looked like a team with no plan. Mcdyess was there best player. Chauncy couldn't stop anything.

So the encouraging thing was that we played poorly and yet hung around within striking distance most of the game.

The bad part(s)...we lost homecourt, we looked tired and disinterested, ball movement sucked, defense sucked (too many easy buckets), and most of all they had there two super stars on the bench for a good portion of the game and we still did nothing. We have always shut down the Glove but he looked great against us last night and their Shaq in the post and Antoine on the 3pt line is genious. If we double Shaq he dishes for Walker if we don't Shaq has his way with [fill in the blank]. I don't see anyone stopping Shaq except Shaq. They can say Ben Wallace defensive player of the year all they want but he cannot stop Shaq. We really miss Elden for this reason. In addition with Ben being a complete non-factor on offense Shaq can just chill and catch his breath...if they forced him to play some D on his guy he might completely fizzle faster.

The worst part is that I actually thought there bench played better than when Shaq and Wayde were in!!! Mourning killed us on both ends and Peyton and J.Will both schooled our back court.

I am not saying doom and gloom but the Pistons have to do better (do I win the obvious statement award?). Chauncy has to not suck on both ends and to me that is the key. It would also be nice to see more movement but they seem to come down the floor and hang out with the ball and create nothing...they were too easy to defend. What happened to Rip and his non-stop motion.

The only other thing I liked was early on Rip and Chauncy went at the basket. But they stopped later on and we faded fast.

_________________Regards, Alpha|Lionbacker.com \(^o^)/"I date this girl for two years and then the nagging starts: I wanna know your name..." - Mike Binder

May 24th, 2006, 10:45 am

wjb21ndtown

theAlphaMale wrote:

Well the Pistons came out flat...they had nothing and shot for crap. They looked like a team with no plan....

I agree with all of that, and blame a good portion of it on the coaching... Flip has done a terrible job all playoffs in regards to game planning, creating mis-matches, exploiting team weaknesses, and countering the oppositions attempts at those relative points.

While we did come out flat, we had the lead and controlled the tempo of much of the 3rd quarter. I don't want to hear that "Shaq" was on the bench garbage... Miami played better when he wasn't on the floor!!!... Wade being in foul trouble was huge, but still Flip was terrible at getting this team started again in the 4th... He refuses to use Delfino off the bench to provide a scoring spark... Delk has looked TERRIBLE, lost, and off all playoffs, yet he continues to get time... Watch the game... We couldn't do ANYTHING when Delk was playing... It looks like we're afraid to pass the damn ball to him for fear that he'll just take it and shoot it... and that fear is warranted... The guy is garbage IMO.. I said it before the playoffs when he was hot... He wasn't doing anything special other than hitting 40% of the junk... PURE JUNK he was throwing up... Why is it junk? No not just because he misses... He take inopportune shots at any given time... Also.. With or without the ball the guy doesn't seem to know where to go... He often joins bunches of people and creates congestion... We don't play well like that...

All I know is... After Tim Thomas' performance in the playoffs... and Delks... I look like a friggin' GENIUS!...